Employer Branding
Tuve Bygg: Can’t afford not to work with employer branding
“We can’t afford to work with our employer brand,” said Tuve Bygg’s HR manager. The construction company aimed to double its turnover by 2020, and with fierce competition in the construction industry, management felt it was time to take its employer brand seriously.
The assignment
Communicating the employer brand
When Marie Hansson became HR manager at Tuve Bygg, one of the largest construction contractors in the Gothenburg region, in spring 2016, she joined a company in transition. A little over a year earlier the company had new owners, who shortly afterwards appointed Pekka Merta as CEO. By then, fierce competition in the industry had cost Tuve Bygg 30 employees to competitors.
“I didn’t know much about Tuve before I started here,” says Marie. “It wasn’t a company I had actively thought about working for, but when I met Pekka and felt his commitment, I was convinced I would enjoy it.”
What we did
A tailored communication plan
At the end of 2016, Marie got in touch with Oddwork. In a meeting focused on employer branding, she heard how Tuve Bygg could use social media to communicate and develop its employer brand.
“Oddwork sold themselves to me in two minutes. They were completely innovative and far from the construction industry’s conservative thinking. They explained in a concrete way, backed by numbers and research, how we could cut through the noise and, in the long run, attract new employees,” says Marie.
Shortly afterwards, Tuve Bygg decided to strengthen its employer brand together with Oddwork. Oddwork carried out a number of interviews and workshops with a group of Tuve Bygg employees and then created a tailored communication plan for the company’s social media.
“We asked ourselves: how do we keep our employees while attracting the very best? We concluded that a high salary is not enough. We also need to communicate our fantastic company culture and how much we value our people.”— Marie Hansson, HR Manager, Tuve Bygg
The first step was to set up a new Facebook page focused on showcasing the company’s employees rather than its construction projects. In a pilot project, Oddwork created and published four updates for Tuve Bygg.
“It was a success almost immediately. We went from not being on social media at all to quickly reaching almost 1,000 followers on Facebook. The first update was published at the end of December and was about our new tradition: a gingerbread house competition! The dress code was ugly Christmas jumpers, and in teams the employees created their own version of a ‘Pekka gingerbread house’, named after our CEO Pekka. Oddwork wrote an entertaining text that highlighted our employees and shared a picture of the winning house.”
The Facebook update was shared 11 times, received more than 200 likes and reached thousands of people in Tuve Bygg’s target groups. Meanwhile, Marie received regular reports on the growth in followers, interactions and how long people watched the video updates.
“The results have been almost overwhelming. Over the past year we have hired more than 100 new Tuve Bygg employees! Several of them said in their job interviews that they follow us on Facebook and that we seemed to have a great company culture, which made them apply.”
Result
#allavilljobbapåtuvebygg
“We have also noticed a positive change internally. Many of our employees have liked and shared the posts. By starting to work with our employer brand, we have created a stronger sense of community where our employees show greater pride in working here. Two colleagues who have been with us for 20 years say it has never been more fun to be part of Tuve Bygg. That is wonderful to hear!”
Tuve Bygg’s strong social media presence has not gone unnoticed by others in the industry either.
“We have used the hashtag #allavilljobbapåtuvebygg (‘everyone wants to work at Tuve Bygg’), and a colleague in the industry called and asked: ‘Why does everyone want to work for you, really?’ It feels like we are noticed in a different way today.”